Rebel to Redeemed…Sharing HIS Kind of Love
I love to attend a performance of Handel’s Messiah each Christmas. So where did it begin? Actually, although the oratorio is most often performed at Christmas time, the premiere took place at Easter time. The oratorio was composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir and soloists. Charles Jennens compiled the scriptural […]
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Christmas Shoes came out just a few months after Daddy died of cancer. The song and story really resonated with me and continues to touch me even years later. The story first appeared in the book, Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul. In the book Helga Schmidt tells the story of a young brother and sister trying to buy their […]
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This is my mother’s favorite carol, so I wanted to learn more about the origin of the song for her. Noel is the French word for Christmas. The French word is from the Latin word natalis, meaning birthday. The song is a narrative of the birth of Christ. The First Nowell is a traditional classical English carol. Researchers believe the […]
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This popular Christmas carol was originally thought to have been written by Martin Luther for his own children and later passed on to German mothers. That legend has since been disproven. The first two stanza’s of the song first appeared in the Little Children’s Book published in 1885 by the John Church Company in Philadelphia. In the hymnal compiled by […]
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Come, Ye Thankful People, Come is a harvest hymn that was written in 1844. The song was written by Henry Alford. In the days when most people survived off of the land, they understood the importance of the harvest. There was an urgency to safely gather the harvest before the winter storms rolled in. The first stanza is written to […]
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Have Thine Own Way, Lord was written by Adelaide A. Pollard. Born in 1862 Iowa, she had a gift for writing prose, poetry, hymns and even articles. Her birth name was Sarah, but she strongly disliked the name and changed it to Adelaide. She spent her life in ministry, teaching at schools, working with evangelist and serving in missions overseas. […]
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Thomas Andrew Dorsey experienced tremendous loss and sadness when he received word that his wife and newborn son died. In August 1932, at the time of their death he was at a revival meeting in St. Louis, Missouri and notified of his loss by telegram. He was left deeply depressed. Dorsey grew up a preacher’s kid but turned away from […]
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When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder was written by James Milton Black in 1893. The story goes that when the time came to take roll in his Sunday School class, a little girl was absent. He’d met the fourteen year old girl one day and she touched his heart. He noticed that she was poorly dressed and realized […]
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The happy song, In the Sweet By and By, came from a moment of depression. Joseph Webster, a composer, was friends with Dr. Sandford Bennett. Joseph Webster was born in the east in 1819. As a young man he studied music with Lowell Mason. In his thirties, he moved west settling in Elkhorn, Wisconsin in 1857. He is said to […]
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Have you ever been under so much stress that it caused a mental breakdown? That’s what happened to William Cowper {pronounced Cooper} while preparing for his bar exam. His breakdown was so complete that he was admitted to an insane asylum until he recovered. During his time in the asylum his life was forever changed when he came to know […]
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Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing was written by Rev. Robert Robinson in the 18th Century. He was twenty-two when he penned the words in 1757. As a young man Robinson lived a wild life that was full of debauchery. The story goes that Robert Robinson came upon a gypsy who said “And you, young man, you will live to […]
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My Jesus, I Love Thee was written as a devotional poem by a young teen who had recently come to faith. That teen was William Ralph Featherston. Featherston considered this hymn his “legacy of love.” His love for God were genuine and true. William Ralph Featherson was born to John and Mary Featherson on July 24, 1846 in Montreal, Canada. […]
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When I was growing up Holy! Holy! Holy! was the first hymn found in the Baptist Hymnal. I remember often requesting this song at hymn sings, when I was in elementary school. I’m sure this was because of the ease of finding the hymn. Holy! Holy! Holy! speaks of the power of the Holy Trinity. The opening phrase, “Holy! Holy! Holy! […]
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Eugene Monroe Bartlett, Sr. is considered to have made a major impact on the development of Southern Gospel Music. He was born on December 24, 1885 in Waynesville, Missouri. At a young age he relocated to Sabastian County, Arkansas where he grew up. He was educated as a music teacher at Hall-Moody Institute in Tennessee and William Jewell College in […]
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He Touched Me was the song that propelled Bill Gaither onto the national stage. Gaither had been writing songs for years, but nothing struck the chord with the American public the way He Touched Me did. Gaither stated in an interview that he began writing in “1960” and this was “my fifty-fourth song.” Gaither was accompanying an “old preacher friend” […]
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Love Lifted Me was a joint effort of James Rowe and Howard E. Smith. The two friends wrote the hymn together. James Rowe was born in Horrabridge, Devonshire, England in 1865. He was the son of a copper miner. James worked for the Irish government for four years, before immigrating to America. He was 24 years old when he settled […]
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Send the Light was written by Charles H. Gabriel. Charles Hutchinson Gabriel was born August 18, 1856 in Wilton Iowa and raised on a farm. As a boy, Gabriel taught himself to play a small reed organ. He was following in his father’s footsteps and leading singing schools by the age of 16. One folklore of his youth, is that […]
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This beautiful song was written by Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander for the children in her Sunday School class. The author was born Cecil Frances Humphreys in 1818 Dublin, Ireland. She was the daughter of an Irish Major. She began writing verse as a child. Young Fanny was very introverted, but showed interest in poetry and writing. Her earliest work […]
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The verse to O How I Love Jesus was written by Frederick Whitfield. Frederick Whitfield was born in Threapwood, Shropshire, England on Jan. 7, 1829. After attending Trinity College in Dublin, he became an Anglican Church clergyman. In 1875, he reached the pinnacle of his carrer when he was appointed to St. Mary’s Church in Hastings. He is credited with […]
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Charlotte Elliott spent the majority of her life as an invalid. During this time she said the only thing she could do was “worship God.” Ms. Eliott began her life with a lot of promise as a popular portrait artist and writer with a humorous voice. She was often in bad health and at the age of thirty became an […]
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